FARMVILLE, Va. – In a showdown between the No. 1 defense and the No. 2 scoring team in the Big South, it was Campbell's unstoppable force that overcame Longwood's immovable object.
 
Propped up by an 83rd-minute game-winner from conference points leader Alexa Genas, the high-scoring Fighting Camels (9-3-2, 5-1-1 Big South) scored twice in the second half to overcome Longwood's halftime lead and pull out a 2-1 victory Wednesday evening at the Longwood Athletics Complex.
 
Longwood (5-7-1, 3-3-1 Big South) entered the matchup as the Big South's stingiest defense, boasting a conference-best 0.47 goals against average in conference play, while Campbell rode the league's second-highest scoring offense to a 2.33 goals per game average.
 
The Lancer backfield proved its dominance during a first half that ended with a 1-0 lead – on a goal from junior Madison Lockamy – but the Fighting Camels maintained a high-pressure offensive approach that finally broke through on Katie Lockwood's equalizer in the 61st minute. From there, Genas, the 2017 Big South Attacking Player of the Year and a three-time All-Big South first-team honoree, kept up her torrid scoring pace by finishing off a cross from Lockwood that gave the Fighting Camels their first lead of the game in the 84th minute.
 
"Everything that worked for us in the first half disappeared in the second half," said Longwood head coach Todd Dyer. "We stopped moving when we had the ball and therefore couldn't keep it long enough to be a threat. And then defensively Campbell just started running circles around us, and it was just too much for us to deal with."
 
The win was Campbell's fourth straight and kept them in second place in the Big South, trailing only 7-0-1 High Point.
 
Longwood withstood Campbell's barrage for the first 60 minutes of the game, surviving five shots on goal in the first half and another through the first 15 minutes of the second half. Junior goalkeeper Madison Van Dyke saved all six of those before Lockwood chased down a deflected shots in the box from Rosie O'Neal and stuck it just under a diving Van Dyke's outstretched arms.
 
Longwood responded immediately when senior Emilie Kupsov – now just five goals shy of tying the program's all-time Division I goals record – turned the ensuing kickoff into a bullet of a shot from outside the box that went just wide. The Lancers generated another opportunity in the 76th minute when Kennedy Culbreath's first attempt was deflected out of the box to Kaitlyn Cox, who uncorkced a line drive that sailed just wide left.
 
Three minutes later, Genas made Longwood pay for those missed opportunities when she connected with Lockwood to give Campbell a 2-1 lead that stood until the final whistle.
 
"What happened is pretty obvious, so we have to figure out why it happened," Dyer said. "And we have to do that fast because we have a tough game coming up at Asheville on Saturday."
 
With three Big South games remaining, Longwood currently sits in sixth place in the standings. The Lancers will wrap up the regular season with a trip to UNC Asheville this Saturday, Oct. 29, followed by the home finale against High Point on Oct. 23 and the regular-season finale at Gardner-Webb on Oct. 26.
 
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